Note To Self: Get Rid Of The Fish Tank
by The Mystery Apprentice
Summary: Or, alternatively, How Hiccup Found Out Toothless Is Afraid of Eels In the Modern world.


**So, I should probably be writing more of The Harmonic Ring Master, but, honestly, I needed a break, and I've been planning this oneshot for months. And yes, before anyone asks, this is a oneshot, unless something happens or someone gives me a really good idea.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, though I will admit that I absolutely love the movies and the characters.**

Note To Self: Get Rid Of The Fish Tank

(Or alternatively, How Hiccup Found Out Toothless Is Afraid of Eels In the Modern World.)

"Well, here we are, Bud. Home sweet home." Hiccup motioned around his living room, a perfect example of "What You're House Should Look Like!" from any number of the modern magazines you could get, many of said magazines were spread immaculately under the coffee table.

The room itself, as always, was spotless, not a speck of dust in sight. Hiccup always made sure to maintain the house, even when his father was gone on another of his "All dragons are evil and must be destroyed for the good of the planet!" quests. It wouldn't end well with if Chief Stoick "The Vast" Haddock came home from a long three weeks at sea to find it a mess while his useless son was inventing another gadget to "help" the village, now would it? If only the man knew just what his weak son was truly getting up to, consorting with the enemy.

Hiccup wasn't going to tell him, of course. Looking over at the dragon he'd befriended, he knew that there was no way he would reveal the crippled black dragon to his father. He wouldn't.

He couldn't. Not if he wanted the only being in living memory to give him unfettered affection to live.

Hiccup smiled at the beast, watching contentedly as he explored the living room.

Then, Hiccup realized what, exactly, had caught the creature's attention, and moved to intercept.

"Ah, no Toothless. No." He moved forward quickly, getting between the dragon and his father's fish tank, which the man had installed after one to many fishing trips with Gobber where they returned with more fish they could eat. The two giant men had taken to filling it with the most dangerous sea creatures they could catch. And while Hiccup understand Toothless' fascination with what the dragon would see as another food source, he really didn't want to spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up spilled water and leftover fish guts.

"Okay, Bud, there we go." Hiccup only barely contains his laughter at the confused look on his friend's face as the dragon looks between him and the tank, even as he allows himself – because Hiccup could never have moved him otherwise – to be backed away from the tank.

Laying a hand on the dragon's head, Hiccup sighed and looked back at the wall length monstrosity. "Pretty cool, a, Bud? Just seeing it is probably making your stomach grumble, yeah? Well, it's a good thing that Dad won't mind if a few things go missing. He'll probably think that I'm just finally getting an appetite."

Hiccup leaves Toothless' side, walking over to the side panel were the ladder, net, and tank entrance are located. It's ease climbing to the top of the ladder to reach the lip of the tank, and sending the net plunging into its depths.

"So, what'd ya think, Bud. A Salmon? Maybe some nice Icelandic cod?" As he stirs the net around he bumps the large eel that his father had caught right before he left, causing it to slither out of it's corner that it had chosen to hide in. It darts around the tank, and immediately, Toothless freaks out.

With a panicked roar, the black beast jumps back, knocking over the couch and the coffee table. The sudden extension of his wings makes the end table and T.V. stand go tumbling to the floor, smashing the T.V. and lamp they were holding against said floors hard wooden paneling.

Hiccup, startled, loses his grip on the net and almost falls from the ladder, catching himself at the last minute.

Quickly, he descends and rushes over to the defensively curled dragon. "Hey, it's okay, Bud, it's okay."

When Hiccup's barely three feet away from the dragon, Toothless suddenly lashes out.

For that split second, Hiccup wonders if he miscalculated. If the dragon was truly going to kill him in a instinctive act to defend himself, but no. Toothless simply grabs his riding harness and pulls the human boy into the protective cover of his wings and claws.

Hiccup, understanding on some instinctual level that his dragon friend needs this, needs to reassure himself that Hiccup was save and unharmed, settled down to wait for when his friend was ready to release him.

He reaches up, running his hands over the black scales above him, comforting the dragon in the only way he knew how.

With a sigh, he rests his head against one of two forelegs beside him, trying to ignore the extra work he would have to do when he got let out, like picking up the room, fixing the lamp and the T.V., and retrieving the net from the fish tank, and just focusing on putting out a positive, reassuring air right now. Worrying about the house could come later. Toothless was far more important.

"Note to self," Hiccup muttered. "Get rid of the fish tank." He looks up at Toothless, whose watching the tank closely with a slit-pupiled gaze, tracking the eel as it slithers back and forth. "Or, at the very least, that eel."


End file.
